Trenance

[Mikkel]

A superb guide Steve, many thanks for posting this.

 

Reading your thread is like coming home to a warm fire after walking through a dark forest where GWR haters lurk behind every tree

[gwrrob]

Absolutely superb Steve.An inspriration.

[devondynosoar118]

Thank you, most enlightening and inspirational.

[gastwo]

Many thanks for a superb tutorial - I tried to emulate your example, but only got as far as Radio 4 and the Shiraz...

 

Must try harder.

 

(After the test match...)

[SwissRailPassion]

Inspirational. I like the design. Would love to see progress, I've been checking back hoping to see more photos.

[steve howe]

Progress continues apace on our GWR branch project, we will be posting some updates on the layout as soon as the Electricians have put it back together again! In the meantime here are a few of the buildings reaching completion.

 

 

Roofing is a bore, but model roofs are very prominent and worth taking time over. I made a grid in Excel representing 11" x 22" slates, a size commonly used by the GWR. This is fairly straightforward in Format >cells and inserting the size you need. Then print the cells by highlighting them in Borders. Alternatively you can draw them out freehand and photocopy them onto good quality paper. I used 160gm Premium which is a little heavy for 4mm but does give deeper relief to the slates. The vertical cuts are made into the edge of the sheet before the strip is seperated....(another Radio 4 and Shiraz activity!)

 

 

I colour the slates in situ although painting them individually is better for old buildings where more variation is common. By the time most railway buildings were constructed, slates had become far more consistent and roofs demonstrate a fairly uniform appearance. The colours are Davy's Grey (which contains a high proportion of real slate); Ivory black; Chinese white; Neutral Tint (a most useful colour as an alternative to black, but beware as it contains quite a lot of blue) and tiny amounts of Raw umber. The slates are painted in random groups, blending the shades together whilst wet.

 

 

 

 

Basic colouring complete awaiting final blending and weathering

 

 

 

The loco shed with completed roof and doors (still awaiting fixing)

 

 

 

The coal merchant's office. Basic carcass in Evergreen weatherboard sheet with sticky label windows, Formcraft (probably long since off the market) brick piers and tissue paper over card for the roof representing roofing felt.

 

 

 

The coal merchant's stable, a tin roofed cart shed will be attached to the end wall. The better effect gained from painting slates individually is quite apparent.

 

 

The local agricutural merchant's store. This is basically the Wills small goods shed with a new roof. The advertisments were gleaned from various internet sites, modified in Photoshop and printed out on photo quality paper.

 

 

The signal box. The Ratio kit with a scratchbuilt locking room. Despite the original being accurately based on Highley box, to me the proportions of the arched windows in the kit are all wrong. I used Howard Scenics embossed card coloured with watercolour and weathered with a dilute grey/buff wash of enamel paint and thinners. This works quite well because the spirit based wash does not affect the watercolour and runs into the mortar lines emphasising them. Mainly Trains do an etch for replacement windows which, if I were doing it again, I would certainly use.

 

 

Landscaping is under way, more layout pics to follow in a few days.

[binesrail]

Lovley work! Keep it up.

 

Chris

[DLT]

Stunning buildings Steve, you have been busy.

Looking forward even more to seeing the layout now.

Cheers,

Dave.T

[artizen]

On the coal merchant's hut, would the roof not look better with this style of ridge capping?

 

[artizen]

OK, I meant the stone coal merchants stable building. It's just that the way the ridge tiles are now, they would not keep out water.

 

Great modelling all the same. The concept of painting boards and paper is excellent.

 

BTW - windows and doors - ever thought of using Rusty Stumps? http://www.rustystumps.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D4015

[steve howe]

On the coal merchant's hut, would the roof not look better with this style of ridge capping?

 

 

Thanks for that link, that style of ridge tiles (called 'crease' in Cornwall) is common on agricultural buildings down here as a means of providing ventilation, earthenware tiles were overlapped by a couple of inches and mortared together leaving a small gap between the slates. Certainly with a good sou'westerly gale rain would find its way inside . I toyed with the idea of a little wooden louvre but decided on such a small building it was a bit OTT. The Rustystumps site looks interesting, not sure how easy it would be to obtain bits from him in the UK, in my experience with US suppliers we get a great deal on goods, only to be clobbered by import tax!

 

Steve

[mudmagnet]

Steve,

Great buildings. I will 'borrow' your method of making the windows, possibly with one variation by drawing on CAD and printing out. I have a small signal box to finish and need to re-make the windows as I am not happy how they have turned out, plus each window has developed an un-wanted curve!

[artizen]

I really like your method of making windows. Have just read the tutorial again - again. I think this will even work in 1:24 scale (which is what I work in). I will draw up the windows in my software and print out onto address labels which are a full A4 in size so plenty of room for extras (mistakes!). This allows me to have white or coloured windows which is something I was having issues with. Can't buy white ink for the printer unfortunately!!!!

 

When I was building in 1:76 a couple of years ago I used wide carpet double sided tape on the back of my Scalescenes roof slate sheets. However, the tape doesn't always do what you expect so I found "helping" the tape with a thin smear of craft glue (the thick stringy stuff) made sure that nothing lifts slowly over time. Now I am using slate grey board from the newsagents to make slates but using the same technique of double sided tape (because I found the roll back) and craft glue. So far nothing has moved in over three months even during the wettest summer we have ever had.

 

Great modelling - keep the photos and tutorials coming!!!

[steve howe]

Apologies for the delay in updating the thread, attention has been diverted to other things recently but....End of Term approaches ! so hopefully work will proceed apace. Whilst the layout was up-ended for the Electricians to weave magic, the station building and its environs have been worked on at the bench. The intention was to complete the station building and platform detailing as one 'lump' which could be tackled away from the layout and then brought in and set in position. More on the platform construction in a bit, but here are a few details of completing the canopy roofs which may be of interest.

 

The lavatory block has a flat roof which appears in photographs of Abbotsbury to have been lead. In any case lead flashing was required so kitchen tinfoil was sprayed on the dull side with grey aerosol primer. This was then cut into narrow strips for application.

 

Jumping a little ahead, the canopy roofs were made from 40thou plasticard with 1mm micro rod stuck to the upper surface. strips of flashing were sprayed with 3M craft adhesive and laid over the micro rod and gently moulded to shape with a soft brush. Thick grey paint (Precision GWR wagon grey) was painted on the remaining surfaces and immediately covered in cheap talcum powder.

 

After an overnight soak, the talc was blown and brushed off revealing a passable impression of an old ashphalt roof. A little more weathering with dilute matt black will remove the traces of white. The skylight was made from 40thou styrene sheet with microstrip glazing bars.

 

Slating in progress using the Excel designed slate strips

 

The platform was made in as large a single unit as possible. Because the station track is laid on a gentle curve for most of its length, the simplest solution was to lay lining paper over the area and trace the rails by rubbing a grubby finger along them. The resulting mark could then be drawn in and the shape of the platform plotted accurately. Once complete the template was cut out and laid onto sheets of 2mm mountboard and the platform and surrounding shapes drawn on and cut out. The 'socket' for the station building was also cut out, and the underside braced with strips of mountboard glued in a box-work structure, allowing for the subtle gradients down the station approach and into the goods yard. The area immediately around the building was paved with Exactoscale self-adhesive platform paving, but due to the curve, each strip had to be cut individually and laid following the platform edge. I bought several sheets of the Exactoscale architectural surfaces many years ago when they first came out and never had the opportunity to use them and maybe my stock has deteriorated with time but I could not get the blighters to stick and stay flat, the edges kept curling up. In desperation each piece was carefully peeled up, coated in Evostik and relaid. The effect is still not to my liking, but generous applications of ground chalk pastel and dirty thinners has resulted in a reasonable effect.

 

The platform under construction. No, I had not had too much of the red stuff when I took the shot - the drawing board on which the modelling is done has a slope!

 

The outlying parts of the platform were finished in an ash surface. This is the real thing from our woodburner, sieved through a 80# and sprinkled thickly onto generous coating of PVA. When all was set, the surplus was vacuumed off and the surface gently sanded with wet and dry paper to reduce the granular effect. Finally a wash of dilute grey paint (GWR wagon grey again) secured a suitably tired shade. The platform coping stones were tricky because I wanted to maintain a smooth curve which ruled out applying indiidual slabs. The edging was finally made using heavy watercolour paper, scored to represent the slabs, then scored 2mm in from the edge and cut into a 6mm wide strip. The narrow edge was folded over to make the vertical face and the wider strip stuck to the platform surface. Final colouring was done with watercolour.

 

Finally flock grass was added to the lesser used areas ready for the addition of fencing and other paraphanalia.

Landscaping updates to follow at the weekend!

[artizen]

Really nice.

 

Stepping back a few posts I mentioned I would try your method of cutting out windows. Well, it failed because the ink powdered as I dragged the knife along the lines and most of it fell off. So I ended up with an eight pane window printed green with lots of white areas! May be I should try a different material as the test was done with outdoor vinyl instead of address labels partly to use a better printer (a 44 inch HP Z5200) with what was supposed to be higher quality inks. Ho hum! The idea still has merit though - just needs time to sort out the correct protocols.

[Loxborough]

Just outstanding modelling with precisely the sort of explanations (detailed but not long winded) that I need to get myself to the next level of modelling.

 

Thanks for posting, and plesae keep them coming.

 

George

 

 

[Brinkly]

The buildings are beautiful Steve. I really have enjoyed following your thread.

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

[SwissRailPassion]

This is superb and a real inspiration. I can't wait to see more pictures.

[Guest oldlugger]

A very nicely put together description Steve, with inspiring photos to boot, highlighting a lovely future layout. Good luck with the project!

 

Simon

[mobi323]

Terrific work. I'm embarrassed at my puny efforts but you have inspired me.

[steve howe]

With Three Spires Railex 2011 looming large, work on Trenance has moved up a gear. We needed a few trees so Steve adapted a method he used for 7mm, it was just as tedious, and only took slightly less time!

 

The basic armature uses a natural sprig of Dogwood (Cornus) which grows abundantly on heathland and has a naturally branched, gnarled appearance. An suitable length was pruned of surplus branches to leave a basic structure.

 

Seafoam (Teloxys aristata for the botanically minded) must be one of the most useful products to have been introduced to the scenic modelling world in recent years. It is a natural plant product that produces clusters of multi-branched flowerheads which, when dried, resemble tiny fully grown trees. Several leading scenic specialists can supply it, this came from International Models.

 

Whilst the larger heads of sea foam can be used to make quite convincing trees in the smaller scales, it is the individual sprigs that grow in pairs from the stem that we are interested in. These can be broken off quite readily and form the basis of the tree's twiggy structure.

 

The sprigs are attached to the main armature using a hot glue gun and working from the lower branches up.

 

About 10 minutes in and the shape is beginning to appear.

 

After about 40 minutes (for a 10" tree) most of the sprigs have been attached. The structure is then given a patchy spray with grey car aerosol primer, follwed by a spray of muddy green acrylic. I use Woodland Scenics Earth Colours for this as they are a very natural range of colours and can be thinned with water. Cost for cost, I find its as cheap to buy one or two of their bottles of paint as it is to mix your own with acrylic colours.

 

The armature is given a spray of 3M Craft Adhesive, this is a permanent spray glue which is considerably cheaper than Display Mount and is quite adequate for our purposes. Foliage texture of choice ( I used Woodland Scenics medium Turf) is then generously bundled onto the still wet glue and shaken off. This process is repeated several times until a suitable density is reached. It is important not to over do the foliating because real trees are quite delicate and 'airy' because in reality the leaves only appear at the outermost extremities of the branches, the inside structure is relatively open.

 

Trees in place on Trenance. Further work is still needed to apply a layer of dead litter under the trees and a final airbrushing of Dylon dyes to gently tone the 'commercial' appearance of the foliage.

 

 

Layout update to follow shortly.

[steve howe]

The scenic development has progressed steadily over a period of about five months, the main structure is the high ground to the rear of the layout, some of which had to be made hollow to conceal the fiddle yard cassettes. Once the basic shell was in place, work could begin on the texturing of the various grassland areas. Rough moorland grass was represented with hanging basket liner, well teased out, bunched up and stuck down with PVA. When set, as much as possible was pinched off and trimmed close to the ground with curved nail scissors

 

Traditional carpet underlay is getting difficult to find, hanging basket liner is a reasonable substitute, but I have not tried bleaching it yet. The colour as it comes is OK for moorland grass, but is probably too dark for meadow land.

 

The same material was used for rough roadside foliage. The 'Cornish hedge' above the lane is a plaster casting from vinyl moulds.

 

'Static grass' applied with the Grassmaster from Greenscenes, to the meadow above the cassette area.

 

The same area, much later.

 

A mixture of textures being applied to the fields and embankments at the rear of the scene

 

Early stages with the rough grass above the cutting at the terminus end.

 

The static grass applied to the plaster shell. After the ModRoc scrim has been applied, an 'earth mix' of 1 part dried sieved garden soil to 2 parts white wall plaster was spread thinly over the shell. This dried to a natural earth colour which was then coated with thin PVA and medium length grass flock. The colour is a little too rich as it comes, so will be toned down eventually with a light spray of Humbrol matt Dark Earth.

 

Early stages in the coal yard, the rough grass on the bank above has been re-coloured using Dylon Olive Green dye applied by airbrush.

 

A big jump forward - there must be a show looming! The track has been ballasted using several grades of material for different areas, the 'main line' and runround loop which we supppose would have been fairly well maintained, was done using Woodland Scenics fine grey ballast; other sidings used sieved granite sand, most of the goods yard was ballasted with ash from the woodburner. The grassland above the railway has been re-coloured with light sprays of Olive Green dye.

 

Looking towards the bufferstops, still a long way to go!

 

The coal yard awaiting final detailing.

 

A few trees have appeared, but much detailing remains to be done in the station area.

 

The main buildings are in place, the weighouse awaits its weighbridge.

 

The station building is finally bedded in, just a few bits of clutter to add.

 

Chapman's provender store begins to look part of the scene.

 

The team hard at it. Even the electricians are getting into scenic work!

 

An earlier view into the station yard.

 

Apologies for the nasty flash photography. The GWR customarily planted evergreens on their station approach roads so we thought we would have a couple flanking the entrance to the station yard.

[artizen]

Really nice. Good info about Dylon for changing the colour of the grass.

[RAY NORWOOD]

Hi

It all looks very nice, I love it all.

 

RAY70B

[Stubby47]

Fantastic, Steve. Looking forward to seeing this on Saturday.